The new Captain
by sharpe26
Summary: Station 51 gets a new captain and some old visitors.
1. Chapter 1

_Carson CA, 2013_

A brief glance on the car clock showed her that she was early. It didn't really matter all that much because she knew the place where she was going. For a brief moment she even figured she knew the place better then most of the men and women that were now working at that same station.

She had little difficulty pulling into the parking lot in the back. There wasn't any traffic to speak of on this Monday morning. And a brief glance showed most if not all the vehicles belonging to the assigned firefighters already there. There was one spot still open for her Honda. Right next to that spot, there were two men in uniform, apparently waiting for her. Parking was no effort at all, it even seemed as if she had done it before.

Once her bag with her turnout gear and some of the other required 'niceties' for this line of work were out of the trunk and on her shoulder, the two approached. One of the two was an older man who seemed to have gone prematurely gray. He seemed a little too small in the physical sense to her. She was pretty sure who he was.

The other man was younger and somewhat closer to her age. His body showed that he was in shape and used to working with weights. His brown hair seemed a little unkempt, but she was sure there was a good reason for it.

A quick glance showed both the engine and the squad in quarters. Good, it would help her familiarize quicker with her new command.

Captain Jim Shannon, the C-shift commander and the man with the gray hair, was glad to see his relief come up a little earlier then usual. He also knew the woman now in front of him was the new captain for A-shift. He hadn't met her personally yet and figured that now was as good a chance as any.

A curt yet pretty smile met his eyes as the two fire captains shook hands "I take it you're my relief?" he asked.

"I am." She gave him her name.

"Captain Jim Shannon. Pleased to meet you. I'm sure that we'll get along just fine. Now if you will excuse me." Shannon ran off, a little too eager to get away. The woman had no time to wonder as the other man now wanted her attention.

"You must be engineer Bradley?" she asked as they shook hands.

She got a direct answer "Yes mam, Craig Bradley." There was something about his voice. The way the deep baritone carried would have made her swoon just a little bit during her college years. Now, it was an entirely different matter.

"You have a pretty voice Craig, do you sing?"

"Sorry mam, but I don't sing." She almost believed it. The engineer seemed ready to wanna leave in a hurry as well. She managed to contain her own snickering at his own unease.

"Too bad." There was something else she was going to need from him " Since captain Shannon left in such a hurry you're going to have to show me the office, and, secondly, I wouldn't mind some coffee."

"The office is on the far left corner of the apparatus bay, and I'll get you some coffee." She followed him in through the back. The summer heat still hadn't dissipated enough so the previous shift had kept the rear bay door open as a form of air conditioning it also made it easy to walk in.

It was brief, but it was there in the bay she got that feeling she got way back then, walking into this station with her hand safely in her father's big hand. He had looked at both vehicles that had been there then. The smaller truck he had ridden in had received a gentle pad or two. Then there had been the other firefighters. She remembered a lot of goodbyes, good lucks and words to that effect. After that, it seemed they were living in another world.

The office hadn't changed all that much either. Sure it had been restyled to something a little closer to the 21st century and there was a computer of which she was sure it would have the log of the last runs the previous shift had been on. Finding nothing out of the ordinary, she quickly checked the fire inspection list and printed it. There also were a few annotations by Shannon about equipment checks. She printed that as well, together with the list of other chores for the day. A brief glance at the rather odd looking clock showed her it was almost time anyway.

In the meantime, Bradley had brought her the much desired coffee. He received a "Thank you" as a reply. Just before he was out of the office she called him back.

"Mam?"

"I take it the entire A-shift is in?"

He nodded "Yes mam."

"Get them together, I'll be right out."

Again in that docile fashion "Yes mam." He headed out and not a few minutes later she heard Bradley assemble the shift between the squad and the engine. By that time she had her turnout gear and her class Bs, along with her white hat, out of her bag.

The printouts landed on her clipboard before the white hat even touched her head. The office shutters, the ones that would let some of the sun in were still closed. Despite that, she caught a reflection of herself in the glass.

The white hat made her feel a little stupid, but since this was her first day she saw no harm in wearing it. Other then that, everything was in order. Her own duty uniform was up to specs and she was wearing it as required. There was only one thing left to do now.

7 sets of eyes met her as she left the office and came around the squad with her clipboard in hand.

"Good morning A-shift, as of today, I am your new captain. The name 's Desoto, Jennifer Desoto." Whilst adding the fact that she liked to be called Cap on duty and Jenn when off duty, she saw two sets of eyes widen. Jennifer figured they recognized her last name.

"Oh and one other thing. Those of you that recognized my last name. You're right. My father began his paramedic career here on 51s. It doesn't mean I get to slack off here. Are we clear on that?"

All the heads nodded. Yet Jennifer could only hope she got through to them. Her force of men would depend on her and on each other in the times ahead...Just like her father had done oh so many years ago... She pushed the thought away. There was work to be done.

_The next morning,_

It was just like the other fire stations she had been to. Wake at the crack of dawn, with the harsh tones and harsh light and grab the radio "Kmg365." After that, it was a simple affair of putting the few strands of loose brown hair back into the regulation knot, and getting into the turnout pants for some coffee, and a chance to really wake up.

If they were lucky, A shift of 51s would not have a run until their shift was over. And perhaps then there was a chance of getting some real breakfast some place and trying to relax until the next shift. Jennifer would have to wait just a while longer. For a brief moment she thought she heard her father's voice coming from the day room.

As she walked into the day room there were indeed two old men in civilian attire looking around as if they hadn't been there at the table in a long while. "Dad! uncle Johnny! What are you doing here?" She was more then surprised to see them. In fact, Jennifer was shocked.

"Well..." her father began "Since this was your first day in command of our old station and our old shift me and Junior here figured we'd surprise you with breakfast." He smiled. So did her uncle Johnny. "Your father called me two days ago and told me you'd be starting here and that he wanted to surprise you. I agreed." Retired fire captain John Gage started unpacking the breakfast bag he and his former paramedic partner, retired battalion chief Roy Desoto, had brought with them.

Ït was the curious look her father gave her that started the new conversation. "It's a weird feeling working here."

Both Johnny and Roy smiled as Jennifer began to talk about her first day...


	2. Chapter 2

2

_Rampart general, emergency room,_

Having your own office on the floor, a blessing or a boon? Right there right now, director of Emergency Medicine Services at Rampart general hospital doctor John Mallory didn't know the answer to that thought. The only thing he was currently glad for was the chance to put his feet up, and think about the coming weekend and the chance to get his boat out on the ocean for a little fishing or maybe even a trip out to Catalina island. Now if only...

Mallory hadn't closed the door to his office completely. Yet, there still was a short knock before the door opened. Mallory knew only two people that worked like that. "Got a minute. John?" and here was one of them. Doctor Eva Hunter, also in scrubs hers were purple instead of green, was a rather tall woman of 6 foot. Naturally she had her auburn hair tied up so she could keep it out of the way if and when she was working. Mallory knew she was an army brat who liked karate and that there was a brother who was out deployed somewhere. They also had a mutual connection, the annual Army-Navy game. He remembered she had been right about that game about three times. He only had two wins to his name.

"I've got a minute." Mallory answered.

"Its about this weekend. I'm afraid I can't make it."

"Dare I ask why?" He was more then a little surprised and a little disappointed as well. Since the weather had been holding, Mallory had been looking forward to a weekend in the sun with Eva Hunter. And maybe if he played his cards right...

"Jonas is back."

Mallory let a sincere smile decorate his lips "I understand. You'd rather spend some quality time with your brother, then basking out in the sun somewhere." The supreme poker player in the universe had stacked the deck against him.

"Sorry." it almost sounded believable to Hunter "Hey! Maybe Angie would like to join you."

Angie, or Angela Lamprecht, was the head nurse for the ER. The reason for her nickname was a certain song from a certain band. Mallory remembered hearing that nurse Lamprecht had been involved in a band for a while. He wasn't sure how she felt about boats though. "I suppose I can ask her..." Mallory's thoughts wandered off. "So, what brings you to Brackett's haunt?"

Brackett's haunt was the popular nickname in the hospital for the office of the director of Emergency Medicine which was in room 127. Named after one of the more modern directors of emergency medicine at the hospital who had been convinced to help set up a paramedic program in the '70s. It was also from here that the paramedics that worked in some of the fire stations in the greater Los Angeles County area were trained, received medical feedback on their calls and supplies, and in some very rare cases direct medical assistance as well.

"I need a hand with something in room 3."

His own scrubs began to rustle as Mallory began to move. His curiosity had already gotten the better of him. "Lead the way."

Hunter managed to resist rolling her eyes at him before heading out of the office.

The two doctors headed out of the office with the door number 127. They passed by the small waiting area where the number of waiting patients was relatively small. From experience both knew that this would change. From the small hall, they walked into a long corridor, past a small unobtrusive plaque.

The plaque read _Doctor Joe Early corridor. Dedicated to doctor Joe Early _and a short narration of his duties at the hospital both his date of birth and date of passing away were mentioned. Both doctors passed by without even looking at the plaque. Then, they entered the second room on their right.

_In the meantime,_

The next few shifts at 51s were quiet for A-Shift and its new captain. Maybe even too quiet. Jennifer had put that time to good use in familiarizing herself with her shift, the district and both the engine and the squad. Next up were the drills. Here, the work with the two paramedics that rode the squad proved to be more then a little intense. Most of the work consisted of checking a mannequin doll that had been specially 'prepared' for the occasion and passing the vitals on to the two, who would then tell the other 5 firefighters what measures to take and thus prevent greater harm from happening.

That was hard work and after that kind of hard work there was a little room for a break, along with coffee. Since Jennifer was the newcomer on the shift it wasn't technically her turn to make coffee, yet. This time, the lineman on the engine, a man by the name of Flint had made a pot. As Jennifer took her first sip she was pleasantly surprised by the taste. "This is good stuff, Flint."

" Aarrrrr! The fairest maiden of the station is endowed with taste!" Nearly everybody at the table, Jennifer included, burst out laughing at Flint's attempt at talking like a pirate.

"Hey cap, I got a question for you." Jennifer had wanted to get back to reading a small manual detailing a procedure but that would have to wait. The question came from Tom Banner, one of the two linemen on the quint. "How do you feel about working in this station?"

Banner 's eyes were one of the two sets that had blinked when she told the others who she was.

She could think of only one answer "I'm humbled. The chances of something like this happening are pretty damn rare. I guess I have some mighty big boots to fill." There was utter silence for a few moments.

"By the way, "Jennifer continued "those two old guys that were here on my first day, that was my dad and his old partner." The reward was exactly what she anticipated. Bulging eyes, shortness of breath and a slightly higher voice timbre that indicated one thing.

"Shit! missed him! I'm really hoping I can interview him one day." Banner was more then disappointed that he had missed the chance to talk with one of the historical figures of the department.

The tones interrupted any further thoughts. "Station 51, unknown type rescue." As she heard their destination Jennifer, who along with the others was about to start running for the engine already knew that weren't going all that far in their district.


	3. Chapter 3

3

The ride that followed seemed to last an eternity to Jennifer. She breathed a silent sigh of relief as first the squad and then the engine turned the corner. Their destination was just ahead, one of the many two deck houses that seemed to be nearly everywhere in the district. Only this one, had a rather larger tree to one side of the house. And near that tree stood a ladder.

"It's near that tree." Bradley's voice sounded a little distorted through her headset. Jenn glanced in the direction of the GPS screen that was installed near the driver side of the engine. A brief glance of her own showed Bradley was right. As she looked up again, Jennifer was just in time to see a silhouette fall from the tree. "Oh shit!"

Out in front, the squad began picking up speed. Inside the engine cab, Jennifer felt it before she heard it above the din of the engine, Bradley had sped up as well.

Not much later, the two vehicles hit their brakes at nearly the same time and skidded to a full stop in the general vicinity of the house. The paramedics were fast. A drug box, a trauma box and a backboard were soon in their hands and not a blink of an eye later Jennifer could see the younger woman was already working on the victim. There was more work still waiting.

There were cries for help coming from the tree. "Better get the roof ladder." From the corner of her eye Jennifer noticed 'her' paramedics were already at work at the base of the tree. The two linemen quickly grabbed the required ladder from the engine and were off in the direction of the tree.

The other set of eyes that blinked back at the station, belonged to one of the two paramedics. And right now, the very dark brown eyes of Jemma Karimi were blinking again just as her partner, Bob Tiernan came up with the backboard and the trauma box. "Something's wrong here."

Karimi had already seen that her victim was a man in his '40s, overweight and somewhat out of shape. Before she had gotten to him, she figured it would have been an easy open and shut rescue. Now, she wasn't so sure anymore. She moved to study the victim's head. The sluggish response she had gotten when she examined the man's eyes worried her a little. The worry only increased once she had a look and feel inside his ears. Her gloved hands came back with fluid stains and a little blood.

"What's wrong Jemma?" Bob Tiernan had started with the vitals but stopped as he noticed his partner starting to move to get into position above the head of the victim. She was moving slower then he expected.

"It's his head, its as if he hit something when he came down." To Bob Tiernan it seemed as if his female partner, who had been called some rather nasty things at her previous stations if the grapevine was correct, sounded surprised. He barely managed to suppress a mirthless chuckle, for Bob Tiernan never considered rescue calls routine. He was also trying to install that line of thinking into his younger partner. The results had been varied so far. Tiernan had some hope that Jemma Karimi could be brought around to his line of thinking.

Bob Tiernan looked both up the tree and the general impact area and saw nothing. The tree trunk didn't provide any clues either. That left only one option. "Hold his head, now!" It was that certain something in Tiernan's tone of voice that managed to set Jemma on edge as well. She complied without question.

Tiernan now gently turned the man on his side. He found what he was looking for not much later.

"Cap, I need a hand here!" Bob Tiernan's voice sounded a little too urgent for Jennifer to ignore. She rushed over from the other side of the tree, where Banner and Flint where helping a man that looked a little worse for wear down the tree.

As she got there, Tiernan quickly explained what he wanted to do "If you can hold him on his side, cap, I can get him on the backboard." Jennifer nodded that she understood. And Bob Tiernan never worked faster in his life. Jennifer could only watch and be astounded on how quickly their patient was secured and tied down on the board.

Moments later, Tiernan had his cell phone out and Jennifer saw that as the perfect excuse to get away from the paramedics and let them do their stuff. As she got to the ladder base. She noticed that Banner had brought down just one man. The man looked to be in the same age bracket as the victim that was receiving treatment.

Before any of the three firefighters could say anything said man got down on all fours and kissed the ground.

Jennifer managed to regain her composure first and helped the man up "Excuse me, sir, but would you mind telling us what happened here?"

"It's my daughter her cat, Georgette, something spooked her and send her up the tree. I still need to get a new ladder after the last one broke so I called Jake here to help me." The man started to break down slowly.

"I could only watch as..." The man began to sob, and Jennifer wondered if the man would need to be looked at by one of the paramedics. From the corner of her eye she caught a slight movement on the tree trunk its self.

The question was out of her mouth before could control herself "Is Georgette a cat?"...

_Rampart, _

If John Mallory had been interested in basketball, and playing he would have had a good chance of being signed by an NBA scout because that's how high he jumped as his cell phone signaled an incoming call. The caller ID did the rest.

"51, what have you got?" The voice on the other end gave him the usual information, a description of the victim, the vitals and a description of anything else the two paramedics on that squad had found. It was the 'anything else' that gave Mallory an icy feeling in his stomach. He was sure he was going to need some help with this one, and Mallory already knew where he would find it.

Mallory gave the paramedics their final transport instructions before leaving his office and heading for the nurses desk. The two people he was looking for were there, engaged in rather apt conversation about something.

" I'm telling you, he can do it, he can fix her up as good as new. That's how me makes the most of it that business." Doctor Richard Hecks commented on the problem that the head nurse, Angela Lamprecht apparently seemed to have a problem, and, his brash and somewhat odd at times intern apparently had the solution.

"What's this about?"

"Guitars." Hecks answered without missing a beat. "It seems our head nurse here as a problem with one of her musical instruments I was just offering information so she could fix that problem."

Mallory glanced in the direction of his head nurse who just rolled her eyes.

" I'm sure nurse Lamprecht has dealt with situations like that before, doctor, so she will probably do the same like she did the last time she had this problem."

The smile on Angela her face told Mallory all he needed to know " Oh and Angie, 51 is bringing in a possible skull fracture in about ten minutes. I want you in on this as well, Hecks." His command tone was telling enough.

"Room 2 will be ready." Angela Lamprecht answered before heading off to check on the treatment room she mentioned.

"I'll be ready." Confirmed Hecks. Somehow, somewhere, Mallory doubted that.

_Ten minutes later_

As he helped the ambulance attendants take the stretcher out, Bob Tiernan was relieved to see Doctor Mallory and a small medical team waiting for them.

"Nothing new to report, Doc. The vitals stayed stable on the way in. Heart rate is real low and I'm a little worried about breathing its self as it shallow and labored."

"Thanks Bob, we'll take it from here." the gurney was pushed inside the building and very silently, Bob Tiernan was glad his part in the rescue was over. At some distance behind the trolley he followed and headed for the nurses desk. There was coffee machine there and Tiernan felt more then a little thirsty.

He was well into his second cup when his partner finally came in from the entrance.

"How is he?" She asked

"Don't know, Mallory met me at the entrance, he hasn't been back yet." Tiernan held up his coffee cup. "Want one?"

Jemma didn't answer. Instead she walked over to the machine and helped herself. Both the paramedics thoughts about their victim were soon interrupted by another voice.

" Karimi, Tiernan, another supply run?" the voice of Doctor Eva Hunter startled both paramedics briefly. They hadn't seen her come out of treatment room 3.

" No doc, nothing that easy. We had a skull fracture." Jemma Karimi answered and provided some more medical information as well. "Doctor Mallory is still with him."

A short low whistle escaped Doctor Hunter her lips "That is not an easy job, at all." Silently, the two paramedics agreed with her.

"Anyway, I'm glad I caught you guys. There's something I've been meaning to ask."

"What about, doc?" Bob Tiernan couldn't shake the weird feeling in his stomach.

"I take it you two know about the explorer program?"Both paramedics could only nod. The explorer program was aimed at teens age 14 and up and allowed those that were really interested to explore the possibilities of a career in the fire service. Under the previous captain the participation of A-shift had not been all that successful to put it mildly.

"My niece Sandy is apparently a part of the program, and is now in the phase where she's apparently allowed to work in a fire station. Somehow she ended up in yours. For some reason she's afraid of what's going on there, so I would like to ask you guys to keep an eye out."

"We'll see what we can do, doc." Tiernan answered, knowing that he was going to need to have a rather 'interesting' talk with their captain once they were back in quarters. And it was a conversation he wasn't looking forward to...


End file.
